Instructor Information	Evaluation Procedures
Course Description	Grading Scale
Course Scope	Course Outline
Course Objectives	Policies
Course Delivery Method	Academic Services
Course Materials	Selected Bibliography

Instructor:

Email: During the course please use only the Messages tool in the

classroom to contact me.

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This course will focus on the kinds of communication typically found in the workplace, and will include the major concepts of technical writing: audience analysis, ethics, collaboration, graphics and design, concepts common to all types of technical communication. In this

course, the student will prepare letters, memos, instructions, proposals, and written and oral reports. Because the Internet has become an important tool in the workplace, it will also cover the basics of using the Internet as research tool.

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ENGL220 introduces students to several different forms of technical writing while challenging them to engage regularly with the field on a scholarly level. Major concepts include collaboration, audience, document design, persuasion, mobile technologies, and revision.

In this course, students will compose product proposals, instructions, labels, and a final web-based product manual. These assignments are designed to build on one another and culminate in the product manual, which should stand as a piece worthy of inclusion in a student’s professional portfolio by term’s end.

Weekly course readings are derived from relevant technical writing journals in the AMU / APUS Trefry Library. Students will be challenged to hone their academic research skills each week as they identify articles relevant to that week’s writing objectives and report on them to their peers.

Weekly class discussion forums are set up to operate as technical writing work groups in companies and organizations do, and should offer students a place to brainstorm and refine ideas for their larger assignments.

You’ll be amazed at what you’ll accomplish in this class in just 8 weeks’ time!

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After completing this course you will be able to:

1. Analyze the audience and purpose of documents to determine the most suitable means of communication in that situation.

• Plan, write, create, evaluate, and present effective technical communication materials, including examples of common

STUDENT WARNING: This course syllabus is from a previous semester archive and serves only as a preparatory reference. Please use this syllabus as a reference only until the professor opens the classroom and you have access to the updated course syllabus. Please do NOT purchase any books or start any work based on this syllabus; this syllabus may NOT be the one that your individual instructor uses for a course that has not yet started. If you need to verify course textbooks, please refer to the online course description through your student portal. This syllabus is proprietary material of APUS.

workplace genre (letters, memos, instructions, proposals, reports, and job application materials).

• Employ organizational strategies and persuasive techniques adapted to a specific audience and situation.
• Apply traditional and online research skills to the tasks of technical writing.
• Critique and revise the writing of oneself and others as assigned.
• Collaborate with colleagues to synthesize technical communication ideas and concepts.

• Analyze the information design and visual design of printed and electronic documents.
• Describe theories of technical communication.
• Evaluate the ethical basis of decisions about communications in the workplace.

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This course delivered via distance learning will enable students to complete academic work in a flexible manner, completely online. Course materials and access to an online learning management system will be made available to each student. Online assignments are due by Sunday evening of the week as noted and include Forum questions (accomplished in groups through a threaded forum), examination, and individual assignments submitted for review by the Faculty Member). Assigned faculty will support the students throughout this eight-week course.

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Required Texts:

All required class readings will be available in the APUS Trefry Library.

Use the assignment links to submit work for grading. Name your files according to the following convention: LastnameA_Assignmenttitle. (For example, HarlowR_Essay2.)

I will grade and return work within 5 days of submission. If you must turn in late work, notify me by email when you have submitted it. If you have any questions, email me immediately.

See late policy in the syllabus section of our class!

Please see the student handbook to find the University’s grading scale and other course policies.

If you are like most students, you have two goals in taking this course: you want to improve your technical communication skills, and you want to get a high grade. My editing of your papers is critical to both of these goals. For you to improve your skills, you must write frequently and have your documents edited. As the semester progresses and you write more and study the annotations on your documents, you should see improvement in your writing.

Writing teachers agree that most writers make the same kinds of errors in their writing over and over; an excellent writer might have only a few characteristic errors, while a poor writer might have many. If you can identify writing errors that you make repeatedly and learn how to avoid them, your writing will improve significantly. Thus, you should keep a log of all the comments made on your papers and check for these errors when you revise your next paper before submitting it.

My job as an instructor is to give you clear and informed commentary on your writing. I will not comment on every problem in your writing, because part of the learning process is for you to learn to identify and correct problems yourself. But I will comment in detail on portions of each assignment.

One aspect of grading that frustrates students is that the evaluation of writing is a subjective process. That is, one qualified instructor will focus on several aspects of your writing, while another equally qualified instructor will focus on different aspects. There simply is no single “right” way to comment on writing, just as there is no single

“right” way to comment on painting or music. However, instructors strive to offer a clear and unbiased judgment about your document.

Grade Instrument	Percent of Grade
Assignment 1	10
Assignment 2	10
Assignment 3	10
Assignment 4	10
Assignment 5	10
Assignment 6	10
Forum 1	5
Forum 2	5
Forum 3	5
Forum 4	5
Forum 5	5
Forum 6	5
Forum 7	5
Forum 8	5
Total	100

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8 Week Course

Week

Topics

Learning Objectives

Deliverables

Week 1

Introductions; Technical Writing Today; Company Choices

Objective 5, 6, 8

Forum 1 Assignment 1: Website Analysis and Selection

Week 2	Audience and Purpose; Product Proposals	Objective 1, 3, 5, 6	Forum 2   Assignment 2: Product Proposal
Week 3	Visual Design; Labels	Objective 2, 4, 6, 8	Forum 3   Assignment 3: The Product Label
Week 4	Instruction Manuals	Objective 2, 5, 6, 9	Forum 4
Week 5	Readability Formulas and Instruction Manuals	Objective 2, 6, 7	Forum 5   Assignment 4: The Instruction Manual
Week 6	White Papers	Objective 1, 2, 3, 6	Forum 6
Week 7	White Papers; Surveys	Objective 2, 6	Forum 7   Assignment 5: White Papers and the Customer Survey
Week 8	Final Reflections; Final Portfolios	Objective 2, 3, 6	Forum 8   Assignment 6: Website Final Portfolio and Cover Letter

of APUS.

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Please see the Student Handbook to reference all University policies. In addition to other important policies, the Student Handbook will cover the:

Drop/Withdrawal Policy Plagiarism Policy

Extension Process and Policy Disability Accommodations

CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS

Studying online requires that you use a computer, an internet connection and desktop productivity software to complete your degree. To access the full functionality of our campus and classrooms you are expected to meet or exceed the requirements below. Some programs and classes may require additional software.

Basic Requirements

• Internet access    Monitor and video card
• Email client and an email    (350MHz or better) capable of address 1024×768 resolution
• Windows XP or higher or Mac          Inkjet or laser jet printer

NOT be the one that your individual instructor uses for a course that has not yet started. If you need to verify course textbooks, please refer to the online course description through your student portal. This syllabus is proprietary material

OS X                                                  2 GB of RAM Sound card and speakers and a     CD-ROM
microphone 20 GB of free hard disk space   Software Requirements
The most recent version of Internet Explorer (IE 8) or Firefox ( 3.6.x)Microsoft Office 2003 or higher/Open Office / Mac Office 08Adobe Flash Player 9 or higherWindows Media Player 7 or higherJava 1.5.0 or higher	QuickTime 7 or higherAdobe Acrobat Reader 8 or higherA current Anti-virus software regularly updated according to the software manufacturer. .docx conversion pack

American Public University System has entered into an agreement with CDWG to provide students and faculty discounted software from Adobe and Microsoft. Click the Help button from inside your classroom for additional information.

WRITING EXPECTATIONS

All written submissions should be submitted in a font and page set-up that is readable and neat. It is recommended that students try to adhere to a consistent format, which is described below.

• MLA or APA format
  • Typewritten in double-spaced format with a readable style and font and submitted inside the electronic classroom (unless classroom access is not possible and other arrangements have been approved by the professor).
  • 11- or 12-point font, using Arial or Times New Roman.
  • Uniform 1-inch page margins, with reasonable accommodation made for special situations and online submission variances.

CITATION AND REFERENCE STYLE

Attention   Please:   Students   will                 follow      the            Modern Language Association (MLA) or the American Psychological Association (APA)

may NOT be the one that your individual instructor uses for a course that has not yet started. If you need to verify course textbooks, please refer to the online course description through your student portal. This syllabus is proprietary material of APUS.

as the citation and reference style used in written work submitted as part of coursework to the University. Assignments completed in a narrative essay or composition format must follow the citation style cited in:

• The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5^th ed.). (2001). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
  • Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers 6th ed. (2003).

LATE ASSIGNMENTS

Students are expected to submit classroom assignments by the posted due date and to complete the course according to the published class schedule. As adults, students, and working professionals I understand you must manage competing demands on your time. Should you need additional time to complete an assignment please contact me before the due date so we can discuss the situation and determine an acceptable resolution. Routine submission of late assignments is unacceptable and may result in points deducted from your final course grade.

NETIQUETTE

Online universities promote the advance of knowledge through positive and constructive debate–both inside and outside the classroom. Discussions on the Internet, however, can occasionally degenerate into needless insults and “flaming.” Such activity and the loss of good manners are not acceptable in a university setting–basic academic rules of good behavior and proper “Netiquette” must persist. Remember that you are in a place for the fun and excitement of learning that does not include descent to personal attacks, or student attempts to stifle the discussion of others.

• Technology Limitations: While you should feel free to explore the full-range of creative composition in your formal papers, keep e-mail layouts simple. The Educator classroom may not fully support MIME or HTML encoded messages, which means that bold face, italics, underlining, and a variety of color-coding or other visual effects will not translate in your e-mail messages.

• Humor Note: Despite the best of intentions, jokes and- especially–satire can easily get lost or taken seriously. If you feel the need for humor, you may wish to add “emoticons” to help alert your readers: ;-), : ), J

DISCLAIMER STATEMENT

Course content may vary from the outline to meet the needs of this particular group.

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ONLINE LIBRARY RESEARCH CENTER & LEARNING RESOURCES

The Online Library Resource Center is available to enrolled students and faculty from inside the electronic campus. This is your starting point for access to online books, subscription periodicals, and Web resources that are designed to support your classes and generally not available through search engines on the open Web. In addition, the Center provides access to special learning resources, which the University has contracted to assist with your studies. Questions can be directed to librarian@apus.edu.

• Charles Town Library and Inter Library Loan: The University maintains a special library with a limited number of supporting volumes, collection of our professors’ publication, and services to search and borrow research books and articles from other libraries.
  • Electronic Books: You can use the online library to uncover and download over 50,000 titles, which have been scanned and made available in electronic format.
  • Electronic Journals: The University provides access to over 12,000 journals, which are available in electronic form and only through limited subscription services.
  • Tutor.com: AMU and APU Civilian & Coast Guard students are eligible for 10 free hours of tutoring provided by APUS.  Tutor.com connects you with a professional tutor online 24/7 to

provide help with assignments, studying, test prep, resume writing, and more. Tutor.com is tutoring the way it was meant to be. You get expert tutoring whenever you need help, and you work one-to-one with your tutor in your online classroom on your specific problem until it is done..

Request        a        Library        Guide        for        your course (http://apus.libguides.com/index.php)

The AMU/APU Library Guides provide access to collections of trusted sites on the Open Web and licensed resources on the Deep Web.

These are specially tailored for academic research at APUS:

• Program Portals contain topical and methodological resources to help launch general research in the degree program. To locate, search by department name or navigate by school.
  • Course Lib-Guides narrow the focus to relevant resources for the corresponding course. To locate, search by class code (e.g., SOCI111) or class name.

If a guide you need isn’t available yet, let us know by emailing the APUS Library: librarian@apus.edu

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Faculty may require assignments be submitted to Turnitin.com. Turnitin.com will analyze a paper and report instances of potential plagiarism for the student to edit before submitting it for a grade. In some cases professors may require students to use Turnitin.com. Typically the course professor will establish a Turnitin.com access code for his/her classes. If the code has not been established, those who wish to use Turnitin.com may ask their professor to establish the code.

Alber-Morgan, S., Hessler, T., & Konrad, M. (2007, August). Teaching writing for keeps. Education & Treatment of Children, 30(3), 107.

Anonymous. (2008, March 10). 66: PowerPoint rules. Businessline. Bean, E. (2012, Sept. 23). Unique career trends: Technical writing.

Retrieved from http://onlinecareertips.com/2012/09/unique–

careertrends–technical-writing/

Brophy, B. (2008, February). Seeing them with their clothes on: Oral communication myths exploded!. Accountancy Ireland, 40(1), 56.

Dupont, V., & Bestgen, Y. (2006, Summer). Learning from technical documents: The role of intermodal referring expressions. Human Factors, 48(2), 257.

Ganier, F. (2007, September). Comparative user-focused evaluation of user guides: A case study. Journal of Technical Writing & Communication, 37(3), 305-322.

Hamilton, J. (2007, October 19). When copywriting ends and copyright begins. Campaign, 8.

Langley, N. (2007, September 25). Technical writing provides career path with creativity. Computer Weekly, 60.

Rice, J. A. (2007, Dec). Ethics in professional collaborative writing projects. Business Communication Quarterly. 70(4), 470-475.

Ragsdale, L. (2007, June). Design 101. New Mexico Woman, 20(6), 17.

Rowh, M. (2007). RÉSUMÉ 101. Career World, 36(3), 12-15.

Warrier, B. (2008, march 10). Technical writing: What is special about it? The Hindu.

Weidenhammer, J. (2008, February). ABCs for RFPs. Government

STUDENT WARNING: This course syllabus is from a previous semester archive and serves only as a preparatory reference. Please use this syllabus as a reference only until the professor opens the classroom and you have access to the updated course syllabus. Please do NOT purchase any books or start any work based on this syllabus; this syllabus may NOT be the one that your individual instructor uses for a course that has not yet started. If you need to verify course textbooks, please refer to the online course description through your student portal. This syllabus is proprietary material of APUS.

Procurement, 16(1), 22.                               Table of Contents